Algeria to propose UN Security Council resolution to 'stop killing' in Rafah

By Rabia Iclal Turan and Serife Cetin

NEW YORK (AA) - Algeria is circulating a draft UN Security Council resolution to "stop the killing" in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah as Israel intensifies its attacks in the densely populated area.

"Algeria will circulate this afternoon a draft resolution on Rafah. It will be a short text, a decisive text, to stop the killing in Rafah," Algeria’s Ambassador to the UN, Amar Bendjama, told reporters after a Security Council meeting.

It is not immediately clear when the voting on the draft resolution will take place.

The draft resolution seen by Anadolu calls on Israel to "immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in Rafah.”

It demands an immediate cease-fire respected by all parties and the "immediate and unconditional" release of all hostages while demanding that the parties "comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain.”

The draft resolution also demands the “full implementation” of previous UN Security Council resolutions, such as a Nov. 1, 2023 resolution calling for "extended humanitarian pauses and corridors" in Gaza, a Dec. 22, 2023 resolution calling for "safe, unhindered and expanded" humanitarian access to Gaza and a March 25, 2024 resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

All three UN Security Council resolutions also demanded the release of hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas.

The draft resolution also expresses "grave concern" over the catastrophic humanitarian situation with a famine spreading throughout the Gaza Strip and condemns the "indiscriminate targeting" of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

The US has vetoed three previous UN Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire in Gaza since Oct. 7 and called the March 25 cease-fire resolution, which was adopted with the US abstaining, "non-binding."

Algeria’s move comes after at least 45 people were killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 250 injured in an Israeli strike on a displaced persons camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday. It occurred near the logistics base of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Tal al-Sultan, said the Gaza-based Government Media Office.

Israel has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

Hamas's cross-border attack against Israel killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures, while around 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages.